To:I. A. PYATNITSKY

To Pyatnitsa. To “Pyatnitsa”, private, from Lenin

Written:Written in November, prior to 18th, 1901Published:First published in 1934 inLenin Miscellany XXVI.

      Sent from Geneva to Odessa.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1977],

      Moscow,Volume 43,

      pages135b-137a.Translated:Martin Parker and Bernard IsaacsTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

DearComrade,

Ourmutual
				friend[1]has told me about the letters you have at your
disposal[5](letters from a C.C. member abroad to C.C. members in Russia
where it is stated that the Minority abroad has become high-handed and that
the resolution of
			       the 22[2]unquestionably reflects the real will of the Party). I think you ought to
send these letters to me here at once.

Inthe first place, I am a member of the C.C. and there fore have every
right to be informed of the correspondence between a C.C. member abroad and
members in Russia, all the more since this correspondence deals with the
stand taken by the Minority, a question which concerns the whole
Party. Surely you will not help C.C. members who have defected to the
Minority to conceal from the Party (and even from other C.C. members) the
real state of affairs?

Secondly,the letters show that some members of the C.C. (Glebov,
Konyagin and Nikitich) are simply not telling the truth when they speak in
their letter to the Russian committees of the conciliatory attitude of the
Minority abroad. Once we have declared open war on this Bonapartism, this
deception of the Party (Galyorka in his pamphlet declared this war on
behalf of all of us), it is our direct duty to expose before the Party any
deception on the part of C.C. members. If, having in our possession proof
of such deception, we failed to bring this proof to the attention of the
Party, we would not be doing our duty to the Party. If we speak of
Bonapartism in the press and from the public platform and at the same time
miss the opportunity to offer documentary proof of that Bonapartism, we
will be simply windbags. After all, we use the word Bonapartism not as
invective, as Martov and Plekhanov have used it.

Itis sometimes said that private letters should not be used in
political struggle. This is not so. When private letters reveal abuses by
Party functionaries, such letters should by all means be used. Plekhanov
used private letters in his
			      Vademecum[3]not even in relation to functionaries. Besides, the letters in question are
not private letters at all, they are the correspondence of C.C. members on
C.C. business. And I, as a member of the C.C., and you, as an agent of the
C.C., are in duty bound to foil this attempt to conceal the truth from the
Party.

Forall these reasons I consider it imperative that you at once send me
these letters or, at any rate, complete copies of them. Of course, parts of
them are confidential, and we shall never make these public. But that which
concernsthe interests of the entire Party and contains nothing confidential must be
divulged. How to do this and when, is something we shall think about here.

Replyto this letterwithout failand as soon as possible. It
doesn’t matter how badly you write Russian. You can even write in Yiddish
if you wish. But let it be immediately.

Ifyou do not agree with me about sending the letters, we shall all
have to ask you to come here as soon as possible,within a few
days. This is such an important matter that it must be discussed and
decided at all costs.

Bestregards,Yours,N. Lenin

P.S.Be sure to tellNih. I—ch,[4]the “Jacobin” andZhitomirskythat they should send me
their addressesat once. It is a downright disgrace that everyone
should drift around on his own without keeping in touch with one another.

[1]MeaningRozalia Zemlyachka.—Ed.

[2]Seepresent edition, Vol. 7, pp. 454–61.—Ed.

[3]Handbook.—Ed.

[4]Identitynot established.—Ed.

[5]Areference to letters from V. A. Noskov and V. N. Rozanov, a Menshevik
co-opted to the C.C., which I. A. Pyatnitsky promptly forwarded to Lenin in
Geneva. Lenin quotes these letters in his pamphletStatement and
Documents on the Break of the Central Institutions with the Party(see
present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 529–35).